I'd love to try a pineapple one day. I know how its done but the leaves are lethal and I have young kids.

Is that your trachy from Collector Palm.... The 15-gal one that was "leggy and stretched" when you got it? If so, I'd say it looks good after winter hibernation! Great job getting it through safely!

I too have one of the same seller's trachys, the ones he is selling this year. I bought it as "oversized 5-gal" and it was advertised to be 5 feet tall, which it was. He was running them on Ebay for $75 plus $24 shipping, and was accepting offers as low as $60. His emailed pictures of the 15-gals looked thicker-trunked and tempting, but I rolled the dice on the cheaper one. The one I got is literally identical to what yours looked like when you posted pics last summer. I still think I got a pretty decent deal on it, but I decided to pot it, and decided to plant (in the yard) a much larger trachy from another source. A super deal I did get from C.P. was a needle palm I bought recently. The thing is just about 3 feet tall and wide, and it has at least 8" of thick needly trunk. It literally looks like a regular 5-gal trachy. Tons of healthy fans/fronds, and even has 3 suckers growing out. I paid $40 plus $20 shipping for that one. Off his site, not Ebay. It looks awesome in my yard near the pool and a larger trachy! I call that needle the find of the year...

We are waiting on another large trachy for my friend. We will have to see if we are two-for-two with this other source. He wanted one like my bigger one, 3.5 feet of very thick trunk, 6.5 feet tall overall. For reference, they are bigger than the 30-gal pictured on the Chilly Palm site. 1/2 the price though. I'll post pics and a follow up once we get this other biggie. I think a lot of trachy-lovers around here will be pretty surprised with the size/price.

It's all about the TRUNK!!

mnpalms, I just ordered one of those 5ft trachy's from C.P. also. It is supposed to arrive today. I am curious to see how nice a palm it is. BTW, I negociated $55 for mine.

frmmi, how long did your pineapple take to start growing a new fruit? I have two in pots that I grew from the crown. Both are about 1-1/2 years old and still quite small.

My 5-footer from Collector palms was indeed 5.5 feet. It looks just about how frmmi's did when it first arrived. I hope Ryan made it right, as that was supposed to be a bigger 15-gal one. I still can't get over the sweet big needle I got from C.P. Too bad they are sold out, I'd get a few more.

My palms did indeed arrive! I must say they both look great. Like yours, the trachy is all of 5ft! The other one is a 5 gal CIDP. I've always wanted one and the price was right. :) Time to plant!

Frmmi your palm looks great, your pineapple looks tasty but your dog looks sooooo cute and funny!!!!!

Theres a story behind the pineapple. My friend brought a little sucker back from india in 99 in his suitcase. I thought that was awesome so in 01 (Aug) his parents brought me one, wrapped in an indian newspaper, hidden in their luggage.

That one got huge but collapsed under its own weight in 04'. I used miracle gro and the soil was very rich potting mix that didnt drain. BIG MISTAKE!! I think they need cactus soil. So I kept its sucker and I finally get a fruit this spring...cactus soil next time. Many of the leaves would get really big and green and collapse (why it took 5 years). The little dog in the palm pic wud chew on the collapsed hanging leaves when she was a pup.

Pineapples are borderline succulent. They don't actually store water to the best of my knowledge, but they have certain succulent-like properties that mostly lead to them not using a lot of water and, if taken indoors in the winter in colder areas, they pretty much go dormant. I have two growing indoors and in the winter, they really don't need much water. Especially since mine are in pretty horrible miracle grow potting mix. I think I water them... maybe every other month? If that? Once they go outside in the summer, of course, they're actively growing and need a lot more water. Also, being bromeliads, I guess, water requirements apparently go down when humidity goes up. Unlike other bromeliads, you don't want to keep the cup constantly wet, and leaf litter getting down in there causes problems.

Cactus mix is probably a really good idea. They're supposed to like sandier soils.

Oh, and they're also prone to develop iron and zinc deficiencies in the second growing season if you don't change soil, so feed accordingly or you get mutated foliage. I learned this the hard way.

Anyway, the larger one's about two feet tall. The smaller one's about six inches tall, though it's some sort of really dwarfy cultivar.

And I think you can blunt the tips, as the growing point is, uh... stem-side, if you have kids, assuming you're growing a general Smooth Cheyanne from the grocery, which is sparsely spined, and not one of the spinier exotic versions.

And, by the way, what part of Michigain is Zone 6?

amccour, pretty much all of west and southwest lower Michigan is zone 6. Lake Michigan keeps the lake shore areas much warmer than the inland part of the state during the winter months. Metro Detroit is also a strong zone 6 from the urban heat island surrounding it.